Boulder County has second-highest solar employment in state

About 6,789 solar jobs exist in Colorado, according to the 2017 Solar Jobs Census from the Solar Foundation, making it the ninth-highest state for solar employment.

Within Colorado, Boulder County has the second-highest amount of solar jobs, with 1,513. Broomfield County has 200 jobs, while Larimer has 150, and Weld has 72 jobs. The county with the highest solar employment is Denver, with 1,650 jobs.

Colorado brought on 785 new solar jobs in 2017 and is ranked eighth for states adding solar jobs. It’s also ranked eighth in solar jobs per capita. Solar jobs grew five times faster than the overall state economy in 2017, according to the Solar Jobs Census. Projected jobs growth in 2018 is expected to be just more than 1 percent.

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The majority of solar jobs in Colorado, about 3,196 of them, are in solar installation, which grew 7 percent from 2016. Other job categories also grew: There were 632 jobs in sales and distribution, a 19 percent increase from 2016, and 1,313 jobs in project development, a 17 percent increase. Manufacturing decreased 3 percent, however, to 722 jobs.

Overall, there are 437 solar companies in the state, and 2.67 percent of the state’s electricity generation comes from solar power.

It’s significant, but it’s dwarfed by the No. 1 state on the list: California. With more than 2,600 solar companies and more than 15 percent of its electricity coming from solar use, the state is a solar powerhouse. The No. 2 state in the ranking, Massachusetts, had 11,530 solar jobs in 2017. California had 86,414.

Behind California and Massachusetts were New York, Texas, Florida, Arizona, North Carolina, New Jersey, then Colorado followed by Nevada rounding out the top 10.

Nationwide, there are more than 250,000 solar jobs.